Talk about insane. President Bush stayed the course, and then came September 11, 2001.

Treating the war on terror as a law enforcement operation doesn't work because terror- ists aren't deterred by law enforcement. They're not even deterred by dying. There are only three ways to stop terrorists, and they all involve the military.

The first way is to create social, economic, and political conditions so people will have little incentive to choose terrorism (and its short life expectancy) as a vocation. You do that with constitutional democracy. Constitutional democracies breed hope, and hope is anathema to terror. That's why the Bush administration is using the military to consti- tutionalize and democratize Iraq.

The second way to combat terrorists is throw them in jail before they finalize plans with those seventy-two virgins. The Bush administration knows this, which is why human-rightsniks have no shortage of clients at Guantanamo. It's also why we haven't been on the business end of a terrorist attack since September 11.

The third way to stop terrorists is to kill them. This works best. Ask Uday and Qusay Hussein–oh wait, they’re dead.

The Wall Street Journal's editorialists heard Mr. Teresa Heinz’s proclamation in pol- itician-speak promise that, if Kerry is elected President, he will withdraw American forces from Iraq "post haste." That would be insanity squared. Withdrawal would send a message to terrorists that, when the going gets tough, the tough turn tail and run. Call it Vietnam and Somalia revisited. Only the most pollyanish peaceniks would believe al-Qa'ida and their lot wouldn’t declare it open season on the paper tiger after that. The condiment king may as well hand sticks out to the terrorists and declare America the world's piñata.

None of this history is secret. It’s notorious and recent, so much so that academics haven’t had a chance to rewrite it yet. And if you believe Kerry and the Democratic cacophony, the world’s terror merchants are more boned up to kill Americans now than ever before. So why would Senator Ketchup do what history tells him not to? He’s no dummy, for any guy who can marry into a $600 million fortune has to have something upstairs. I can think of only three plausible explanations.

The first is that Kerry’s own aversion to bullets from his days in Vietnam is so acute that he considers avoiding wars more important than winning them. Fair enough, but not exactly a redeeming quality for a would-be commander in chief. (In case you’ve never heard the sound of Kerry’s voice, he did, indeed, serve in Vietnam. I hear bookies are accepting bets that, some- time before Super Tuesday, he will have a conversation without mentioning it. Current odds are 8-1.)

The second explanation is that Kerry is more concerned about America’s international reputation than he is with its domestic security. The French, in particular, seem partic- ularly keen on seeing America act more like them. Bad idea. The French haven’t won a war since the French Revolution,and, in that war, they were fighting themselves!

The third explanation is that, to get to the Left of Howard Dean, the French-looking candidate flat lied. Very possible, because lying is no sin in the Democratic Party. Ask the guy who didn’t have sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky.

Kerry isn't the only member of the Democratic Party who meets Einstein's definition of insane. Heck, their party principles–soaking the rich, throwing money at problems, eliminating racism by racializing everything--are a compilation of craziness. A Republi- can-controlled Congress can undo those mistakes. Legislation always gets a second chance. But victims of terrorism don't. The 3,000 Americans who died at the hands of terrorists on 9/11 learned that lesson the hard way, and because of them, terrorists con- tinue to feel the turned up heat. The American people would be–well, insane–to let Senator Ketchup turn it down now.

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